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Growing from Freelance to Agency?
I interviewed 93 freelancers in 2010. The most important questions I ask them tend to focus on where they are trying to go. What are your dreams for your business? What are your dreams for your life? The most common aspiration I hear is: “I want to work on bigger projects, team up with these other freelancers. You know — turn it into a real company, like you guys … or something … maybe.” Which is awesome! Taking freelancing to the next step of building a bigger business is a great goal, and a way cool business model, if you are the right person. By the time we finish discussing what the end result looks like, you’ll either get more excited (like I did) or you might consider other paths to follow and grow your existing freelance business. Read the … Continue reading
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Getting Freelancers to Work with You
Working with freelancers offers an interesting conundrum. In a polygamous environment, a genuinely free market, how do you build loyalty? Why would a great freelancer choose my urgent project over someone else’s? How do we stay attractive after the 3rd date (project)? What about after dating (without getting married) for 3 years? After all, the best freelancers get to pick from a wide pool of suitors. Read the whole post at Freelance Switch
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Freelancers are slutty, but so are you
Freelancers are slutty, but so are you: Strategies for the successful managment of independent contractors View more presentations from Shane Pearlman. I had a blast making this slide deck and giving this talk to a group of business owners in Monterrey, CA. Peter, Reid & I often debate how to create loyalty with our freelancers. Its a huge questions as our entire workforce is composed of contractors. We are also vendors to our clients, so we live on both sides. I’d love any thoughts, suggestion or ideas you might be able to add.
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Master Services Agreement
While looking at Master Services Agreement, I was shocked to see it has been three years since we shared it with our community. A LOT has changed in that sweet little document since then. We’ve had huge companies like TIVO adopt it (pretty cool). Of course, we started by stealing someone else’s MSA (thank you Smart Design) and growing it to suit our culture and company. I hope our template serves you well. DOWNLOAD: S&P’s Contractor MSA What is this document? It is a representation of the understandings between ourselves and an independent contractor. It used to be written in lawyer-ese. That was until the day we realized that even those who read it didn’t understand what they were signing. The point of a contract is to keep you out of court (and protect you should you end up there). … Continue reading
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Managing a Distributed Team
Leading Without Seeing: managing distributed teams Last week, I presented to the Monterey PMI. The topic: how to manage and lead a fully distributed team. Check out the slides and share your thoughts. If you know of any good opportunities to talk, let me know or point people to www.shanepearlman.com. You are looking at the masterful design work of Reid Peifer. Thanks to his brilliance, the deck was chosen as the presentation of the day on slideshare.
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Happy and High Performing Teams a la SXSW
Shane and I had a great time at South by Southwest (SXSW) this year. As the event slowly becomes more distant in my memory I’m attempting to post some of the learnings on the blog. In this post I’m going to address the session titled, 10 Strategies for Building a Happy and High Performing Team, lead by Beth Hallmark and Drew Scherz. Let me start by saying this was one of 2 sessions that we attended in a small room. Both were extremely engaging because everyone had a voice in the conversation. I highly recommend attending some small sessions if you plan to visit SXSW. Beth and Drew work as team leaders in the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts overseeing Susan Combs’ award winning Window on State Government site. Here’s what they handed us at the session: Know what people … Continue reading
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With a Little HELP from my Friends
Often I find that when pressures mount my first reaction is to defend myself. Take, for example, a recent conversation between me and Reid. Reid: Peter, when you have a moment, I could really use some dev support to spec out a small plugin for one of our clients. It’ll only take an hour tops and would really help me a bunch. Peter: I’ll get you some dev support as soon as our dev projects calm down in a couple of months. We’re working as hard as we can and you’re not the only one who has need you know? I mean I’ve barely slept in like 5 months and have started to BUY laundry and dishes instead of cleaning them because of these deadlines that we have to meet and oh my god you’re totally STRESSING ME OUT WITH … Continue reading
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The HR Hobo Technique
Sometimes I really debate writing about some of our more successful techniques. What if someone actually takes our advice and does something with it? Make our competitors smarter? Then I remember that there really is enough work for all of us (I absolutly believe that) and I unclench my ass. The fact is that starting a conversation with a stranger is uncomfortable for most people. For the developers I know, it is often more so. After all, they did not choose a people oriented career. The problem we often face when recruiting: How do you make small talk with developers in a public space, get them to come out of their shell and talk to you? Our solution: Hang a sign around your neck.
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Update: The Shane & Peter Inc. Contract
Two weeks ago, Peter & I finally stepped out on a long overdue corporate retreat. We have been running in survival mode since my daughter Serenity was born in March. A busy company, little sleep and a smaller (but much wiser) management team caused us to focus upon our clients, but severely limited our time to put thought into the business itself. Despite all the possibility for disaster, projects went relatively smoothly. We learned a few good lessons and as a result, our terms and conditions grew. Time to update the old contract.
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Happy, Helpful, Curious, and Accountable
Today our good friend Iris from NextSpace asked us about our corporate culture mantra. Shane and I delighted in recounting it: Happy, Helpful, Curious and Accountable. As we recited our beloved chant, it dawned on me that it deserves a long overdue blog post. What, you ask, is this 12 syllable slogan? It’s our cultural measuring stick. These are the words that we iterate whenever we meet someone new or review someone we’ve been working with. It applies both to our colleagues and to our clients. In fact, we apply this gauge to everyone in our lives from presidential candidates to car mechanics. I asked Shane, who recently became a father, how he envisions his daughter as an adult. He thought about it for a while and after a couple days of deliberation replied, I would be delighted to see … Continue reading
